Recently, an article on Reuters’ website reported on some interesting debt-related statistics. The statistics regard consumer credit in the U.S. in August of this year. The statistics appear to indicate that the U.S. saw some very different trends in consumer credit in August than it did in July.
Reportedly, in August of this year, the amount of credit held by U.S. consumers went down by $9.5 billion. Reportedly, the U.S hadn’t seen that large of a monthly drop in consumer credit in over a year.
According to the statistics, in August of this year, non-revolving credit (a credit category that includes things like auto loans) went down by $7.23 billion and revolving credit (a credit category that includes things like credit card debt) went down by $2.27 billion. Reportedly, the August drop in non-revolving credit is the biggest monthly decrease in non-revolving credit that the U.S. has experienced since 2008.
The consumer credit statistics from August of this year show some sharp contrasts from what the U.S. experienced consumer credit-wise in July of this year. In July of this year, non-revolving credit went up by $15.48 billion and consumer credit as a whole went up by $11.92 billion.
Thus, it appears that the trends the U.S. saw in August regarding non-revolving credit and consumer credit as a whole were quite different from the trends the U.S. saw in July regarding these things. One wonders what caused this change in trends and what effects this change in trends and its causes have had on consumers.
Source: Reuters, “Consumer credit falls $9.5 billion in August,” Oct. 7, 2011
